Peter. "He's a very arch donkey for a lady
to be dhrivin', and mebbe he'd lay down and not get up for you."

"Arrah! shut yer mouth, Pether. Give him a couple of belts anondher the
hind leg, melady, and that'll put the fear o' God in him!" said Dinnis.

"I'd rather not go at all," urged Salemina timidly; "it's too late, and
too extraordinary."

"I'm not going to have it on my conscience to make you lose this
dinner-party,--not if I have to carry you on my back the whole way,"
said Benella doggedly; "and this donkey won't lay down with me more'n
once,--I can tell him that right at the start."

"Sure, melady, he'll go to Galway for you, when oncet he's started wid
himself; and it's only a couple o' fingers to the Castle, annyways."

The four-mile drive, especially through the village of Ballyfuchsia, was
an eventful one, but by dint of prodding, poking, and belting, Benella
had accomplished half the distance in three-quarters of an hour, when
the donkey suddenly lay down 'on her,' according to Peter's prediction.
This was luckily at the town cross, where a group of idlers rendered
hearty assistance. Willing as they were to succour a lady in disthress,
they did not know of any car which could be secured in time to be of
service, but one of them offered to walk and run by the side of the
donkey, so as to kape him on his legs. It was in this wise that
Miss Peabody approached Balkilly Castle; and when a gilded
gentleman-in-waiting lifted her from Rooney's 'plain cart,' she was just
on the verge of hysterics. Fortunately his Magnificence was English, and
betrayed no surprise at the arrival in this humble fashion of a dinner
guest, but simply summoned the Irish housekeeper, who revived her with
wine, and called on all the saints to witness that she'd never heard of
such a shameful thing, and such a disgrace to Ballyfuchsia. The idea of
not keeping a ladder in a house where the door-knobs were apt to come
off struck her as being the worst feature of the accident, though this
unexpected and truly Milesian view of the matter had never occurred to
us.

"Well, I got Miss Peabody to the dinner-party," said Benella
triumphantly, when she was laboriously unlacing my frock, later on, "or
at least I got her there before it broke up. I had to walk every step o'
the way home, and the donkey laid down four times, but I was so nerved
up I didn't care a mite. I was bound Miss Peabody shouldn't lose her
chance, after all she's done for